^^i^'i:^^2g£g:g;!y:K;£g f i:agj£g:^»;;^g^^ ' ^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. % 

Chap CZ..^^p.Q 



Shelf 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



ADDRESS 



LIFE, CHARACTER, ^ SERVICES 



OF 



COM. JACOB JONES. 



DELIVERED IN WILMINGTON 



TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1850. 



SY vJOXTisr Tvr. cl^ytoit- 



WILMINGTON, DEL. : 

1851. 



PREFACE. 



During the latter part of the life-time of the late Coniinodore 
Jacob Jones, he frequeutly expressed a desire that his body might 
iiually repose beneath the soil of his native State, lor which state he 
had always, during his eventful career, manifested the strongest re- 
gard and deepest attachment. 

When, therefore, the intelligence of his death had been received 
in the city of Wilmington, the citizens immediately determined to 
adopt such measures as would enable them to comply with his often 
expressed wish, and which would at the same time present them with 
an opportunity to exhibit that respect and gratitude for him which 
a long life of brilliant and meritorious services in the defense of his 
country, had so eminently entitled him. In pursuance of this in- 
tention, application was made through Lieut. J. P. Gilliss, U. S. 
Navy, to the family of the deceased, to permit the mortal remains of 
the illustrious Commodore to be removed to the State of Delaware : 
the Wilmington and Brandywiue Cemetery Company having vol- 
untarily and generously offered a lot in their cemetery grounds 
for the final resting place of the remains of this distinguished 
officer. 

The family liaving readily acquiesced in the removal, accordingly 
on the 26th day of October, 1850, the last sad and solemn ceremo- 
nies were performed with appropriate civic and military honors. 

As a connected biography of the late Commodore Jacob Jones 
has not been published, nor yet much of his private history known 
except among his personal and particular friends, the Hon. John M. 

3 



Clayton, who for a long series of years had been his Avarm and de- 
voted friend, and, perhaps more than most others, was familiar with 
his private and public life, was requested to deliver in the city of 
Wilmington a eulogium on the life, character, and public services of 
Commodore Jacob Jones. 

Mr. Clayton promptly acceded to this request, and on the 17th 
day of December, 1850, in the saloon of the Odd Fellows Hall, 
before a larg^ assemblage of the citizens of Delaware, pronounced 
in the " address" contained the following pages. 



COMMODORE JACOB JONES. 



Conscious as I am of my inability to do full justice to 
the memory of Commodore Jacob Jones, who has reflected 
so much honor upon his country, yet I have not felt at 
liberty to decline the duty assigned to me by those wlio 
have had the superintendence of the sad rites connected 
with the interment of his remains in the bosom of his 
native State. 1 have felt that duty to be the more im- 
perative upon me, because I had the honor of a long 
personal acquaintance with the deceased, which had 
ripened into a friendship that terminated only with his 
life. 

The memory of the virtues of that gallant officer is 
engraved deeply on the hearts of those who enjoyed the 
pleasure of knowing him. But much of the history of 
his early life is lost, or only to be restored by the remi- 
niscences of ancient men, who were the comj)anions of 
his youth, very feW' of whom still survive to recount the 
incidents of that period. He was born near the town 
of Smyrna, in the county of Kent, in Delaware, in the 
month -of March, 1768; so that at the time of his death, 
on Saturday, the 3d of August last, he was in the eighty- 
third year of his age. Those Avho associated with him 
in the bloom of manhood, have often in my hearing 
delighted to eulo2;ize his character and relate events eon- 



6 

iiected with his early history. His father was an inde- 
pendent farmer of exemplary moral and religious 
character, and his mother was of a family greatly 
respected. She died while he was an infant, his father 
soon followed her to the grave, and at four years of age 
he was an orj^han. But he received a liberal and classi- 
cal education in his youth, and afterwards studied medi- 
cine for four years under the direction of Dr. .James 
Sykes, of Dover, whose fame as a physician and surgeon 
was widely spread throughout the country. He closed 
his professional studies in the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, and returning to Delaware practiced as a phy- 
sician in the county which gave him birth. He was 
there distinguished and beloved for the benevolence, 
integrity and frankness of his character, and he enjoyed 
the entire con'fidence, not only of the first citizens, but of 
the highest authorities in this, his native State. He was 
appointed by Governor Joshua Clayton Clerk of the old 
Supreme Court of Delaware. He married the daughter 
of the distinguished gentleman under whose direction 
he commenced the study of his profession, and continued 
his residence in Kent until the death of that lady, to 
whom he was most devotedly attached. In the thirty- 
first year of his age, he relinquished the pursuits of civil 
and professional life, and entered the Navy of the United 
States, of which he was destined to become one of the 
brightest ornaments. 

At that period, there was indeed strong inducement for 
a spirit as daring and jjatriotic as that of Jones to abandon 
the tranquility of private life, and gather laurels in the 
service of his country : and the ocean seemed to present 
tlic most ;i]i]ir<)|iri:iU' theatre for one whose bosom glowed 
with th(3 love of fame, uiid wiiose character was marked 



by a contempt of danger. Tlie aggressions of France 
and Enoland on the commercial marine of this country 
had swept nearly every American merchant ship from 
tlie seas. 

It is said that prior to the Convention of 1800, France 
alone, nnder various pretexts, had captured and destroyed 
about two thousand American vessels. The sea swarmed 
with letters of marque under the tricolored flag of the 
new Republic, empowered by the French Government, 
in defiance of the treaties of 1778, to seize every neutral 
vessel which could be found without a role d' equipage, 
or containing the most trivial article to justify a suspi- 
cion that any part of her cargo was designed for a Brit- 
ish market. At the same time, the aggressions upon our 
commerce committed by Great Britain, for the purpose 
of crippling France by stopping the supplies of food 
from this country, were scarcely less atrocious. Our 
national flag was every where dishonored by these 
powerful belligerents, who, while engaged in a war of 
the fiercest and most vindictive character ao-ainst each 
other, seemed to concur only in the single purpose of 
plundering our commerce. Our country was impov- 
erished, the national treasury was exhausted, and the 
Government could rely no longer for its repletion upon 
import duties, the most available means of supply de- 
signated by the Constitution. But amidst all this dis- 
tress, the spirit of the nation had been effectually 
roused, and the Government first looked to the chief 
aggressor for redress. Negotiations had failed. French 
promises had resulted only in fresher and more asfii'ra- 
vated spoliations upon our commerce, and measures of 
retaliation were directed by Congress, as well to prevent 
further aggressions as to compel France to make com- 



pensation for the injui'ies we had suffered. The condi- 
tion of public affairs was indeed strange and anomalous. 
It was not acknowledged to be a state of war by either 
party. Yet our dock-yards resounded with the ham- 
mers of workmen equipping men-of-war for battle 
against French cruisers ; and the ocean blazed with 
naval conflicts between the ships of the two contending 
Republics. 

At that period many patriotic bosoms burned with de- 
sire to avenge. the wrongs of our country ; and Truxton 
slied new and unfading lustre on the glory of the 
American name. Can we fail at this day to pay the 
just tribute of our gratitude to the memory of the 
bi'ave, who, while the nation was yet in its infancy, 
sprang forward to defend it against one of the most 
powerful nations of Europe. Our Navy, upon which 
we now depend as the right arm of the nation's defense, 
then consisted of but five frigates, nineteen sloops of 
war, and a few ships of an inferior class ; and a contest 
with the well-equipped frigates and heavy ships of the 
line of the aggressor, seemed to promise little besides 
disaster and defeat. 

Fifty-one years have rolled away since the country, 
prostrate and bleeding under the blows of the great 
belligerents of Europe, appealed to her children for re- 
dress. Yet she has not forgotten, and never can forget, 
those who obeyed her call. It was then that Jones, who 
enjoyed the friendship and gloi-ied in the fame of Trux- 
ton, Ibrsook tiie paths of private life, abandoned all the 
pursuits and studies and scenes, which had become en- 
deared to him l)y the recollections of youth and early 
manhood ; and, tliough i)ast tlie age of thirty, accej)ted 
a midshipman's warrant, that lie might do battle for his 



injured country. His first commission as a naval officer 
bears date on the 10th day of April, 1799. The intelli- 
gence of the capture of the French forty-gun frigate, 
r Insurgenie,hy Truxton in the Constellation, an Ameri- 
can frigate of thirty-eight, had just reached our shores, 
and within thirty days after that victory, which revived 
the drooping spirits of our countrymen and incited the 
gallant and daring to the rescue, the name of Jones was 
enrolled on the list of the defenders of his country. 

It has often been remarked of Jacob Jones, that he 
always enjoyed in an eminent degree the confidence and 
esteem of his brother officers. By their aid he soon be- 
(;ame distinguished in his new profession ; and it was 
ever a subject of pleasant reflection Avitli him, that he 
won by his good conduct the approval, support and 
friendship of the veterans in the American Navy. 
Bearing the character of one of the bravest of the 
brave, the insolent and the arrogant were awed into 
decency in every association with him. The haughty, 
who might have desired to trample on one so mild and 
unoffending in his deportment, avoided unnecessary con- 
flicts with a man universally known to be as lion-hearted 
as he was gentle in his manners. His course in early 
life had eminently fitted him for hard service ; for he 
had been addicted from youth to the sports of the field, 
excelled in manly exercises, and had ever been tempe- 
rate and abstemious in his habits. His old and intimate 
companions, when he entered the service, it is said, pre- 
dicted that he, who had always been foremost in the fox 
chase, would soon become the best sailor on the deck ; 
and confidently foretold his rapid rise in a profession 
which called into exercise the peculiar qualities which 
distinguished him. The reputation whicli he speedily 



10 

gained iu his new lorofession seemed to vindicate their 
sagacity. On the 22d of February, 1801, he rose to 
the rank of Lieutenant. On the 20th of April, 1810, 
he was made a Master Commandant ; and on the 3d of 
March, 1813, he was again promoted and rated as a 
Post-Captain in the Navy of the United States. 

He never sought to avoid the discharge of any duty 
merely because it was unpleasant or laborious. He 
loved his new profession because it enabled him most 
effectually to serve his country. His life, during the 
stormy struggle which ended with the peace of 1815, 
and for a long period after that, was one of continued 
hardship ; for he actually served at sea, at various 
periods after he entered the navy, twenty-two years and 
and nine months. His last cruise of three years and 
two months in the Pacific terminated in the month of 
October, 1829, when he was in the sixty -second year of 
his age. 

He was afterwards honored with the most important 
commands in the service on shore, at the Navy Yards at 
Baltimore and New York, and the Naval Asylum near 
Philadelphia. He remained in the Navy nearly fifty- 
two years, and he was regarded by his brother officers, 
to whom the kindness of his nature prompted him to 
offer every instruction, when applied to, which could 
inure to their good, or the good of the service, as pos- 
sessing a fund of experience, skill and knowledge of his 
profession unsurpassed by any of the nautical men whom 
our country has produced. 

He made his first cruise under Commodore Barry, 
then regarded as the father of our Navy, served in the 
frigate United States, in the Ganges, and in the frigate 
Philadcl[)lii:i, in which last he was captured before Tri- 



11 

poll. He endured twenty months' severe captivity 
among the barbarous Tripolitans, but his powerful con- 
stitution remained unimpaired. After the Tripolitan 
war, he served on the Orleans Station, and commanded 
the brig Argus, which was ordered to protect our south- 
ern maritime frontier. In every station he conducted 
himself to the satisfaction of his Government. 

To those who are unacquainted with the private 
virtues and peculiar characteristics of the lamented 
dead, the topic of chief interest in his history is the 
glorious action with the British man-of-war "Frolic," 
on the 18th day of October, 1812. The victory of 
Jones was the more splendid, as the British ship was 
superior in force to his own. In our other naval en- 
gagements with British ships during the war, we were 
met, according to the British accounts generally, by 
vessels of inferior power. The salve for the pride of 
our haughty foe in every defeat was to be found in the 
difference of metal, the number of men, or of width of 
beam, or of the condition of the ships, or of some acci- 
dental circumstance, without which, it was always con- 
tended, victory would have followed, as its necessary 
destiny, " the meteor flag of England." 

But it has generally been acknowledged that the 
Frolic was superior in force to the Wasp. She was, 
in fact, superior by four twelve-pounders ; and though 
in company with four other British armed vessels, 
under her convoy, mounting from twelve to eighteen 
guns, when the Wasp bore down upon her, Captain 
Whinyates, her commander, manifested no wish to avoid 
the combat or to avail himself of the assistance of any 
others ; but desiring to enjoy the exclusive honor of 
capturing the American ship, he directed the other 



12 

vessels under his control to pass ahead, while he alone 
prepared for action. The confidence thus evinced by the 
British commander in his own superiority, is a circum- 
stance not to be overlooked in rating the relative 
strength of the combatants. His readiness to enter the 
action without the additional force under his command, 
has furnished all fair men on both sides of the water 
with the answer to the British apology for the result, 
that the Frolic had met with an accident, and had her 
mainyard on deck when she engaged. The Wasp had 
lost her jibboom and two men in a heavy gale, two days 
before the action ; and her maintopraast was shot away 
between four and five minutes from the commencement 
of the firing, and "falling" says Jones, in his ofiicial 
account " together with the maintopsail yard, across the 
larboard and fore and foretopsail braces, rendered our 
(the Wasj^'s) headyards unmanageable the remainder 
of the action." In thi-ee minutes more, as he adds, " the 
gaff and mizzen-topgallant mast came down ; and at 
twenty minntes from the beginning of .the action, every 
brace and most of the rigging were shot away." 

Yet the ship thus crippled in her rigging proved to be 
the victor in the struggle ; a fact which shows the British 
excuse of crip23led rigging could not account for the 
result of a l)attle fought, during a great ])art of it, while 
the shij)s were nearly in actual contact. 

The loss on board the American ship was fivenien 
killed and five wounded ; while Captain Whinyates, in 
his official report, states " not twenty of the crew of the 
Frolic escaped unhurt," thus showing the number of 
killed and wounded in the enemy's vessel to have been 
from eighty to one hundred, or more than eight to one, 
as compared Avitli the loss of the American ship. 



13 

The hull of the AVasp sustained but little damage, 
while the Frolic had been " hulled at almost every dis- 
charge, and was virtually a wreck when taken possession 
of by the Americans." The combat lasted but forty- 
three minutes. It terminated in boarding the Frolic, 
whose decks were strewed with killed and wounded, 
every seaman having gone below except the man at the 
wheel. 

It ought not to be forgotten, in relating the history of 
this action, as a fact redounding to the credit of the con- 
querors, that notwithstanding the excitement of such a 
scene, and all the excesses into wdiich both seamen and 
soldiers are so naturally led when storming an enemy's 
post or boarding his deck, not a single Englishman was 
injured by an American hand, after the officers on deck 
threw down their swords in token of submission. No 
fact could more clearly indicate the influence of Jones 
over his crew. The hero whose voice in^ the hour of 
battle rang in the ears of a true sailor, like the notes of 
a war-trumpet, was in the hour of victory mild and 
o-entle : and his heart overflowed with kindness to a 
brave but vanquished foe. His own generous nature 
had prompted him, and he had taught his companions 
to be " in battle the lion — but the battle once ended, in 
mercy, the lamb." How different was the scene of mer- 
ciless massacre presented on the decks of the unfortunate 
Chesapeake, when she was boarded and captured by the 
crew of the Shannon ! As an American citizen, I would 
rather have the honor, and at this day I have no doubt 
every intelligent Englishman would prefer the honor, of 
claiming these conquerors as countrymen who in the 
fiercest of their wrath remembered mercy, rather than 
those who, however splendid their triumph, lost their 



14 

humanity in the hour of battle, and blotted their fame 
with the blood of the vanquished. 

While contemplating this picture, bright and glorious 
as it justly appears on our side, we can and should do 
full justice to the enemy who gallantly fought until four- 
fifths of their crew were wounded or slain. The solitary 
British sailor at the wheel of the Frolic, whose name is 
unknown, wliose memory, so far as I have learned, has 
never been preserved, but who, according to the account 
of our naval historians, when from the stem to the stern 
of that noble vessel, besides himself, only two or three 
bleeding officers were left standing, ^^ still maintained 
his post with the spirit of a true seaman to the very last." 
Death in its most terrific forms was before him and around 
liim ; and it seemed to him that he touched it, and still 
it did not appal him. When the hull became a wreck, 
and the falling spars and sails covered up the dead, and 
crushed the limbs of the wounded, who were shrieking 
in their agony; when the masts all fell, and our boarders 
swept the deck, with their steel pikes bristling before 
him ; when tlie hopes of reward had vanished ; when 
rhe victory was gone, and the defeat certain ; yet still 
• that single seaman stood at his post and wrung from his 
generous enemies the applause due to one who, under 
any circumstances, dared to discharge his duty. Amidst 
the trying vicissitudes to which this nation may be sub- 
jected in ages to come; amidst the dangers to which the 
Union may be exposed in future times, may every 
American resolve as this man did, under all discourage- 
ments and disasters, come life or death, to be true to the 
duty and faithful in the station assigned to him by his 
country. 

Of the spirit which animated the Americans in this 



15 

battle, I shall have further occasion to speak before I 
have clone. (3f the consequences of this victory one of 
our naval historians says : 

"They who understood the power of ships, and ex- 
amined details with a real desire to leai-n the truth, dis- 
covered that a new era had occurred in naval warfare. 
While these critics perceived and admitted the sui)e- 
riority of the American frigates, in the two actions that 
had previously occurred, they could not but see that it 
was not in proportion to the execution they had done ; 
and in the combat between the two vessels, that has just 
been recorded (the Wasp and the Frolic), the important 
fact was not overlooked that the enemy's vessel had suf- 
fered as severe a loss in men as it was usual for the 
heaviest vessels to sustain in general actions. Hitherto, 
English ships had been compelled to seek close contests 
with their foes ; but now they had only to back their 
topsails to be certain of being engaged at the muzzles of 
their guns. There was no falling off in British spirit ; 
no vessel was unworthily given up ; and it was necessary 
to search for the cause of this sudden and o-reat chano-e 
ni the character of the new adversary. The most cavil- 
ling detractors of the rising reputation of the American 
marine were reluctantly obliged to admit that naval 
combats were no longer what they had been ; and the 
discreet among the enemy saw the necessity of greater 
caution, more labored j^rei^arations and of renewed 
efforts." =•== 

Jones had been directed to take the command of the 
Wasp in 1811, and before the war broke out had been 
sent to England and France with despatches from our 
Government. AYar was declared after his departure, but 

* Cooper's " History of the Navy of tlie United States," vol. 2, ch. v. 



16 

he returned safely through all the enemy's cruisers, re- 
fitted his vessel immediately and sailed on a cruise from 
Philadelphia, just six days before his action with the 
Frolic. His official despatch, giving an account of the 
action and of the ca^^ture of both ships by the Poictiers, 
74, on the same day, is regarded as a model report, on 
account of the direct, lucid, unostentatious and con- 
densed character of its composition. It inspired, not 
only our Government, but our whole country, with a 
perfect conviction, that ship to ship, and man to man, 
we were a full match for the foe. No action was fought 
during that war, which tended more than this to elevate 
the character of American seamen, both at home and 
abroad. 

The success of Jones in this action has always been 
justly ascribed, not less to his own superior skill and 
seamanshij:) than to the bravery and discipline of his 
officers and crew. His j^hm was to close with the enemy, 
drive her men from the decks by bags of buckshot, 
which he had ])ut into his guns for the purpose, and 
then carry her by boarding. Captain Whinyates is said 
afterwards to liave complained of the havoc made 
among his men by what he called Jones' " goose-shot," 
and I well remember to have heard a gentleman, who 
went with a flag of truce from the Governor of Dela- 
ware, on board the Poictiers, Avhile she was lying off 
Cape Henlopen and blockading the bay, relate that, 
while dining on that occasion with Commodore Bere^ 
ford, the latter complained of these buckshot (to which 
he attril)uted the result of the battle), as not having the 
justification of sufficient precedent in naval warfare to 
sustain the use of them. " For the purpose of showing 
me," said my informant, "how the battle was won, the 



17 

Commodore directed a servant to bring some of the cart- 
ridges taken out of the Wasp ; and to my surprise (and 
to my infinite amusement when I looked at the counte- 
nance of the Commodore), he cut oj^en with a dessert 
knife one of these cartridges, out of which r.olled a great 
number of buckshot besides the balk" But there was 
another order, not less effective, given by Jones and 
faithfully obeyed by his crew in this action, which was 
to fire with their cannon at the English vessel (the sea 
being rough at the time), as that vessel rose on the bil- 
lows. The Frolic, on the contrary, fired chiefly as the 
American ship descended with the wave. The effect 
was soon perceived in the wreck of the hull of the 
Frolic and the terrible slaughter of her crew, while the 
loss was but small among the crew of the Wasp, whose 
hull scarcely sustained any injury, her damage being 
chiefly among her masts, spars and rigging. 

Ample justice was done by Jones, in his official report, 
to his officers and crew. The spirit which fired their 
bosoms in that gallant action, was the same which per- 
vaded the hearts of their countrymen in all their naval 
conflicts. The x\merican sailor had been taught to con- 
sider himself as the peculiarly appropriate avenger of 
the wrongs suffered by his messmates and brother sailors 
from British impressments. The story of the sufferings 
of those who had been imj^ressed had reached the ear of 
every American seaman. The cruelties of the pressgang 
were the subjects of daily discussion in the forecastle, as 
well as in the mess-room of the officers ; and whenever, 
with the British flag in view, the beat of the drum called 
the American sailor to quarters, he apj^roached them 
with a bosom burning for revenge on those who had 
enslaved his comrades, and even sometimes compelled 



18 

tliem to fight against their country. He made the 
quarrel his" own ; he did not consider it merely the 
quarrel of the nation ; and he fought with an energy 
and a desperate courage unsurpassed in the history ol 
the seas. When he suffered it was in a cause of his 
heart's approving ; and not a few who perished died with 
a cheer for " sailors' rights " upon their lips. The blood 
shed by these gallant men, in a struggle against a cruel 
oppression, was not shed in vain ; for although Great 
Britain refused, at the time of negotiating the Treaty of 
Ghent, to relinquish or limit her claim to impress, yet 
in fact she -has never shice attempted the practical exer- 
cise of the right then asserted by her, well knowing as 
the ministers of the Crown had long known, and now 
know, that the impressment of an American citizen, na- 
tive or naturalized, would be followed by immediate war. 
It may be interesting in this connection, and it is but 
justice, to observe that the claim of the Government of 
Great Britain never did extend beyond the impressment 
of British seamen in private merchant vessels. But 
they denied the privileges of citizenship to such as had 
been naturalized under our laws, having been previously 
British subjects; and the abuse by the subordinate 
officers of the Crown in the exercise of their claim 
extended not only to foreign seamen in the American 
service, but to native Americans also, and to ships oi 
war as well as merchant vessels. While the government 
disclaimed these abuses, and proffered redress, still the 
abuses were continued. When Mr. King was minister 
in England, he prevailed on the British Government to 
disavow the right to impress American citizens, whether 
native or naturalized, on the higli seas; and an arrange- 
ment of the whole question had progressed so far that 



19 

articles were prepared for signature, aud about to be 
signed, on this basis, when Lord St. Vincent broke uj) 
the whole negotiations by insisting on an exception of the 
" narrow seas," which our Government held to be utterly 
inadmissible. It is probable that had the agreement 
of Lord Hawkesbury to renounce the British principle 
in favor of the rights of our flag, and to prohibit impress- 
ment on the high seas, been then embodied in a treaty 
between the two countries, the foundation would then 
have been hdd for an amicable adjustment of all the 
other difficulties. The continued refusal of England to 
disavow or relinquish her unjust pretensions in this 
regard aggravated the sense of wrong suffered from her 
paper blockades, and her orders in council, and at 
length produced a singular result, from which a useful 
moral may be drawn by every government which delib- 
erately seeks to practice injustice. At this day. Great 
Britain, although we have no treaty with her on the 
subject, dare not exercise the pretended right to impress 
any American seaman, or to search any American ship 
for the purpose of impressing her own seamen ; and were 
she now to offer to renounce all her former pretensions 
in this respect, pretensions which cost her a bloody and 
expensive war, and wdiich caused a most unhappy alien- 
ation betw^een the people of the tw^o countries, there is 
not an American statesman to be found that would not 
disdain to treat with her on such a topic. 

His answer would be that he could not even nominally 
recognize the existence of such a claim, that the right to 
the free navigation of the seas by his countrymen should 
never be made to depend upon any treaty, and that we 
would answer any attempt to violate that right at the 
cannon's mouth. 



20 

When Jones returned to the United States, after his 
action Avith the Frolic, he was received with applause by 
his Government, and with gratitude and admiration by 
his countrymen. The usual thanks and rewards of 
victory were unanimously voted by Congress, and he 
was everywhere greeted as a champion who had fully 
maintained and vindicated the naval character, and the 
honor of the nation. But he enjoyed nothing so much 
beyond the consciousness of having done his duty, not 
all the brilliant entertainments and medals he received, 
as the heartfelt joy of his old friends, and the triumph 
of his reputation in his native State. He was honored 
with a public festival at her capital. Her legislature 
appointed a committee to wait upon him and express the 
" pride and pleasure " they felt ; they heaped praises and 
congratulations upon him, and voted him an elegant 
service of plate with appropriate engravings. ^ His por- 
trait has ever since adorned one of her legislative cham- 
bers, and his best monument will ever ])e found in the 
hearts of her people. 

No higher testimonial of the estimate in which he was 
lield by the Government, could have been bestowed upon 
Jones, than that which after his victory, was speedily 
conferred on him by the President, in his appointment 
to the command of the frigate Macedonian. This ship 
had then recently been captured from the British, and 
had not shared the fate of other British frigates, which 
had been burnt or sunk iji their capture, but had been 
brought safely to an American port by Decatur. It was 
at once foreseen that her recapture would be eagerly 
sought for by the enemy, and that she would i)robably 
become an object of the most desperate struggle on both 
sides, incase they could overtake her with another heavy 



21 

frigate. The honor of this critical command was assigned 
to Jones. The fine ship to which he was thus advanced, 
with the frigate United States, bearing the broad pen- 
nant of Commodore Decatur, was shortly after blockaded 
at New London, by the Brttish squadron, of which the 
Ramilies, T4, was the flag-ship. During that blockade, 
a proposition, it is said on good authority, w^as made by 
the American officers to engage a British blockading 
frigate, of equal force, with either of the American 
frigates, barring the interference of other vessels, but the 
commander of the British squadron declined it. 

During the whole war Jones was constantly in ser- 
vice. Indeed, during the whole remainder of his life he 
was engaged in the public employment, either on sea or 
land. 

A writer, well acquainted with his character, justly 
ranks among the noble qualities for which he was dis- 
tinguished, his love of exact truth and uncompromising 
hatred of injustice. He adds, that " courage, firmness 
and sincerity were parts of his nature ; his entire, calm 
self-possession never left him under any circumstances;" 
that "he was a man of great intelligence, being a gene- 
ral reader, and wrote tersely with few words, having a 
natural faculty of condensation. In neither speaking, 
nor writing, nor in any occupation or event of his life, 
did he hesitate to express his full opinion, which always 
coincided with what was right, honorable and patriotic." 
His perfect self-command, when duty to his country 
urged him to control his temper, which was quick as 
lightning to resent an insult, is illustrated in the anec- 
dote regarding a combat between a number of his ship's 
crew, when ashore at Valparaiso, with the cholos, or la- 
borers of the mixed caste, in the town. In the midst of 



22 

the battle Jones arrived, and perceiving the injury which 
our commerce might suffer and the controversy into 
which our country might be drawn, he succeeded in 
separating the combatants by drawing off liis men, who 
reluctantly submitted to be driven by him to the laud- 
ing. The cholos, who owed their safety to his interfe- 
rence, poured upon him, as he retired, a shower of stones, 
one of which struck him and wounded him severely in 
the face. It would have been an easy matter to avenge 
the outrage in blood, by permitting his saiWrs to charge 
back upon the ruffians; but he coolly wiped his face, 
only remarking that "i^ was wonderful with what jyreci- 
sion those fellows could throng'' and without suffering 
himself to be for one moment ruffled by such an ignoble 
brawl, urged his men safely on board his ship, as if he 
were inca})able, not only of revenge, but even of anger, 
against such low and degenerate antagonists. Yet the 
same man, on another occasion, when an American civil- 
ian, in a foreign port, had been insulted by a foreign 
military officer, who r<ifused all reparation, because the 
American was not a military man, took the matter up, 
for the honor of his country , and his officers, having at 
his instigation resolved to comj)el satisfaction, proffered 
himself ready to begin with the General commanding at 
the station. The result was that the offender was dis- 
graced ; and it is said that AmericaJi citizens have ever 
since been effectually protected from such dishonorable 
treatment by military officers in that, as in other civil- 
ized countries. 

It would far exceed the limits assigned to me to at- 
tempt his entire biography. He was thrice married, and 
was happy in eacli matrimonial connection. In the year 
1821, he espoused a lady of eminent wortli, who sur- 



23 

vived him. After having enjoyed during a long life the 
happiness of the domestic circle, the society of a large 
number of devoted friends and the respect and esteem of 
his countrymen, he descentled to the grave, crowned with 
a fame, which not even personal malice, or envy itself, 
would dare attempt to tarnish. 

Delaware gave the nation two naval heroes in the war 
of 1812, whose exploits were not surpassed in that war. 
No other State, however large or populous, can exhibit 
more brilliant naval triumphs than those w^on by Jones 
on the ocean, and McDonough on the lake. The con- 
queror of Champlain was a native of this county. 
Bush, who fell in the action with the Guerriere, was also 
a native of Delaware, and the State still fully sustains 
her high reputation by the standing of her sons in the 
Navy. The official report shows that at this time she 
furnishes it with more seamen than some States with ten 
times her population. She may turn also with pride to 
the land, as well as the ocean. Gibson, who carried a 
British battery at the sortie of Fort Erie, and fell in the 
arms of victory, w^as the son of a mechanic of Delaware, 
and was born at South Milford, in the county of Sus- 
sex. Haslett, who was killed at the head of the Dela- 
ware Regiment, in the battle of Princeton, was a citizen 
of Sussex. Vaughan, the Lieutenant-Colonel, another 
native of Sussex, who, after the death of Haslett, led 
that regiment in the battles of Brandywine, German- 
town, the Cowpens and Camden, after the war of the 
Bevolution ended and he was released from captivity, 
lived and died a poor man, on the banks of the Nanti- 
coke, where, it is said, not a stone is to be found to indi- 
cate his last resting-place. Patten, the Major, a native 
of Kent, who fought with the regiment in every battle 



24 

from Long Island to Camden, shared the cajDtivit}' of 
Vaughan after the disastrous defeat of Gates, whicli re- 
duced the old Blues to a battalion. When the war was 
ended, he returned to his home in Kent, and represented 
his State in the Congress of the United States with the 
same fidelity and patriotism which had distinguished all 
his military life. Kirkwood,* who was a native of this 
county, having fought through more than thirty battles 
of Independence, at last fell by the rifle and tomahawk 
of the. savage, and sleeps without a monument on the 
fetal field of St. Clair's defeat. Jaquett, who was with 
Kirkwood through the whole war, and Bennett, and 
Caldwell, and Pope, and Stockton were citizens of Dela- 
ware. 

In his memoirs of the Southern War, Lee, who often 
fought by their side, speaking of the troops of this 
State, says: "They were soldiers, than whom better or 
braver never existed. At Camden, they fought with the 
bayonet over the body of the wounded DeKalb, who led 
them with the Maryland brigade in that action ; and 
though overpowered at last by numbers, they jointly 
shared with their fellow-soldiers of that brigade the 
honor of that proud testimonial, bestowed by him upon 
their common valor : ' I glory,' said the dying General, 
'to have fallen fighting at the head of such brave men.'" 

More than the third of a century has elapsed since 
the termination of the last war between Great Britain 
and the United States. Let us hope that the sentiments 
of liostility between the two nations, generated by tliat 
war, and by the causes that led to it, may heieafter be 
buried in ()l)livi()n. ''"'' '''' ''" ''''' '''' 



*See Lff's " Memoirs of tlic Southern War."' 



25 

The Monumeijt erected in the Wilmington and 
Brandywine Cemetery bears the following inscrip- 
tion.: 

ERECTED BY THE STATE OF DELAWARE, 

IN MEMORY OF 

COMMODORE JACOB JONES, U. S. N. 

BORN IN SMYRNA, DELAWARE, MARCH, 1768. 
DIED IN PHILADELPHIA, AUGUST, 1850. 

When his countiy needed the services of her sons, he relinquished 

the practice of medicine, and entered the navy as a 

midshipman when over 30 years of age. 

February, 1801, made a Lieutenant ; 
1810, A Master-Commandant, and 
March, 1813, a Post Captain. 

He was in the navy nearly 52 years. His services were gratefully 

acknowledged by his country and his State, and his 

brilliant career has become a part of the 

history of his government. 

His private character was no less beautiful than his public services 

were distinguished, and he was as mild 

in peace as brave in war. 



